28 january 2022 current affairs

1. CURRENT AFFAIRS
28 January 2022
Dr. A. PRABAHARAN
www.indopraba.blogspot.com

2. Bharat Biotech’s intranasal Covid booster
gets DCGI nod for trials in India
 The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 28,
2022, granted its approval to Bharat Biotech for the trials of its
intranasal Covid booster dose in India.
 The trials of nasal vaccine will be done on 900 candidates.
 Earlier, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of DCGI had
given ‘in-principle’ approval to Bharat Biotech for the phase-III
booster dose study for its nasal covid vaccine, a first of its kind
in India.
 The committee had asked Bharat Biotech to submit the
protocols for approval 3 weeks ago.
 Notably, the Chairman of Bharat Biotech Krishna Ella and co-
founder Suchitra Ella have also been honoured with the
prestigious Padma Bhushan, announced on January 25, 2022,
by the President of India.
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3. Digital Sansad app launched to make live
proceedings accessible to citizens
 Indian Parliament has launched the ‘Digital Sansad App’ to
make the Parliament proceedings accessible not just to
the members but also to the public at large. With this
move, Parliament has expanded its digital footprint.
 The Digital Sansad App is an initiative of Lok Sabha
Speaker, Om Birla who has been constantly working to
make the Parliament proceedings more accessible.
 The launch of the ‘Digital’ Sansad App’ will also be
significant ahead of the Budget Session 2022 which will be
presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman on February 1, 2022.
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4. Google Airtel Partnership: Google to invest up to $1
billion in Bharti Airtel, acquire 1.28 percent stake
 Google Airtel Partnership: Google has announced that it will invest
up to $1 billion in India’s second-largest telecom operator, Bharti
Airtel. Alphabet Inc., which owns Google, will pay about $700
million for a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel and another 300 million is
expected to go for the multi-year plans that will include devices.
 Bharti Airtel announced on January 28th that its board has
approved the issuance of 7.1 crore equity shares to Google on a
preferential basis.
 The partnership between the search engine giant and the telecom
operator is expected to accelerate the growth of the country's
digital ecosystem.
 Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the investment is a
continuation of Google for India Digitization Fund’s efforts to
increase access to smartphones and enhance connectivity in India
to support new business models and help companies on their
digital transformation journey.
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5. What is Omicron BA.2?
 Omicron BA.2 is the new descendent of the Omicron variant which
has grasped the attention of scientists and health officials around the
world.
 Omicron BA.2 has become the second version of the Omicron variant
that has been found in at least 40 countries, including the United
States of America.
 Called to be more infectious than the Omicron variant, scientists have
been claiming not to know much about the new Omicron BA.2,
including whether the new virus evades the vaccines better or causes
more severe diseases.
 The new version of Coronavirus, which the scientists are calling
Omicron BA.2, has been widely considered stealthier than the original
version of Omicron because of the particular genetic trait which
somewhat makes it harder to detect.
 Some of the scientists are also worrying that it can be more
contagious.
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6. India-Central Asia Virtual Summit: Delhi
Declaration adopted, Key focus on trade,
connectivity
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the first-ever India-Central Asia
Summit virtually on January 27, 2022.
 The Presidents of five Central Asian nations attended the summit including
Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kazakhstan's Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz
Republic's Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon and Turkmenistan's
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.
 This is the first time that such a high-level summit was held between India
and the Central Asian nations. It coincided with the completion of 30 years of
establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Central Asian
countries.
 PM Modi during his opening address said that the cooperation between India
and Central Asia has achieved many successes over the past three decades
and that we must now define an ambitious vision for the coming years as
well.
 The summit aimed to pay the way for the adoption of an integrated
approach for regional connectivity and cooperation for the next 30 years.
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7. Xiomara Castro becomes first woman
President of Honduras; VP Kamala Harris
vows closer US ties
 Xiomara Castro was sworn in as the first female President of
Honduras on January 27, 2022. The inauguration of the 62-
years old leftist former first lady will put an end to the 12
years of right-wing National Party rule in the Central
American country which has also been grappling with
poverty, drug trafficking, migration, and corruption.
 Xiomara Castro, the wife of former President Manuel Zelaya
who was deposed in 2009, wrote on Twitter, “Twelve Years of
Struggle, 12 years of resistance. Today the people’s
government begins.”
 Xiomara Castro’s inauguration has ended the eight-year-old
rule of Juan Orlando Hernandez, a one-time US ally who
has been accused in the US courts of corruption and links to
the drug traffickers.
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8. SpaceX Rocket part to crash into Moon in
early March
 A part of the SpaceX rocket that was launched seven years ago
in 2015 is still floating in space, in what experts are calling a
chaotic orbit.
 The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral
in Florida in 2015 to put into orbit NASA's Deep Space Climate
Observatory (DSCOVR).
 The second stage of the rocket or the booster, weighing about 4-
tonne, has been floating in space ever since. Based on recent
observations and calculations by astronomers, it is going to crash
into the Moon on March 4, 2022.
 The SpaceX rocket debris will reach the Moon years before it is
scheduled to take astronauts back on the Moon's surface.
 Elon Musk's SpaceX has been selected by NASA to provide the
spaceship to take astronauts back to the surface of the moon.
The mission is though still years away.
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